The cable, which will be officially switched on by President Jakaya Kikwete, is expected to fundamentally change much of the underlying economics of the communications business.
Further changes are expected in terms of competition for international capacity and pricing when the TEAMS and EASSy cables also arrive in the fourth quarter of this year and next June, respectively.
The most important aspect of these developments is the availability of the broadband and lowering of the cost of transferring data. The minimal bandwith available has hitherto impacted negatively on the penetration of Internet services.
Currently, Tanzania, like most of Africa, uses satellite communication to connect to the information superhighway that has become part and parcel of the 21st century.
Seacom is expected to lower the connectivity cost from about $300 per megabyte per second to $100. Consequently, Internet charges will go down considerably, enabling the spread and provisioning of digital services such as e-health, e-commerce, e-government, telemedicine, and so on.
Others to immensely benefit from the broadband, include financial institutions, mobile telephone operators, non-governmental organisations, television stations, schools and research institutions, to name but a few. However, full exploitation of the new broadband will much depend on the level of preparedness on the ground.
While Tanzania is still grappling with institutional and structural differences on creation of a national ICT backbone, Kenya and Rwanda have already put theirs in place.
Our ICT experts have sounded the alarm that unless such digital shortcomings are fully addressed the coming of Seacom and other cables will be meaningless and almost useless.
Overall, the arrival of the cable is a hugely positive development, but it will only make sense if the benefits are exploited for the benefit of all, including those at the grassroots.
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Quelle/Source: The Citizen Daily, 23.07.2009
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